Nail-assorting mechanism.



No. 707,l39. Patented Aug. l9, I902.

/ B. F. MAYO. NAIL ASSORTING MECHANISM.

(Application filed Feb. 26, 1898. Renewed Jan. 23, 1900.)

2 S heetsSheet I.

(No Model.)

, Inventor.- .Beqy'zmuh a H W WI IfMayo; M

m: Nomw PErsRs c9. PHOTO-LUNG. wnsnmmomy. c4

B. F. MAYO.

NAIL ASSORTING MECHANISM.

(Appli catjdn filed Feb. 26, 1898. Renewed Jan. 23, 1900.)

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

No. 707,|39. Patented Aug. [9, I902.

.mhiesses: i 5 @MMM v UNITED STATE PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN F. MAYO, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, A OOR-,

PORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

NAIL-ASSORTING MECHANISM.

srnornrcn'rron forming part of Letters Patent No. 707,139, dated August 19, 1902. Application filed February 25, 1898 Renewed January 23, 1900. Serial No- 2|51l..' (No model.)

T or whom it may concern: v

Be it known that'I, BENJAMIN F. MAYO, of

Salem, county of Essex, State of Massachn-, setts, have invented an Improvement inNail- 5 Assorting Mechanism, ofwhichthe following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

Many different forms of mechanism have been devised for automatically. assorting nails head first or point first as vthey are delivered from raceways on which said nails are laid indiscriminately as to the direction of their heads or'points. I have'devised a I 5 novel mechanism'for this purpose.

My invention has been based on,a novel principle not heretofore observed, asI understand, in connection with this class of work. I

The nails used are commonly of the" same length and Weight anditheir head ends'predominate in weight. With nails of this class I have discovered that if an arresting device be located at a distance from the end of an inclined raceway section or device by which nails are sustained and on the surface of,

which said nails are free to slide, the distance of said arresting device from said raceway section or device" being, however, less than the length of the nails, the ends of the nails will meet said arresting device and that all the nails leaving said raceway section or device head first will because of the preponderance of their heads in Weight drop head first; 'but the nails which leave it pointfirst will rest with their points against said arresting device and will not dropby gravityr Observing this, I have devised an arresting device which also constitutes ainail-reverser,

invention.

device are superimposed oneon or with rela- 5 tion to'the other,and said-plates at times presenttheir edges next the said raceway section or device in substantially the same vertical plane and at other times .in difierent vertical planes, said plates beingmovedone on or with relation to the other for each row of nails to be discharged from a plurality of Y raceways, the upper plate having first imparted to it a movement away from the raceway;terminal sufficient to enable the pointfirst nails to slide from the terminal, the points of tliepoint-first nails passing over the edge of the lower plate, which thereafter acts as a reversing device', sotbat allthe pointfirst nails may by the movement of the upper plate slide 'far enough to enable their heads to'leave the raceway. Figure 1 shows a partial plan view I of a plurality of raceways with one form of arresting device embodying a preferred form of my Fig. 2 is a view looking at the parts of Fig. 1 inthe direction of the arrow 2. Figs. 3 and dare partial sections to illustr'atethamethod of operation of my invention, and Fig. 5 is a right-hand side elevation of the part of my invention shown in Fig. 1. Referring to the drawings, let A represent the top of a suitable plate, hereinrepresent ed as provided witha "plurality of raceways a, into'which nailsare laid indiscriminately withrelation to their heads and points, said nails traveling by gravity down the said raceways by reason of the inclination of the plate A. This raceway-plate is and may be supported in any usual manner by framework, 8 5

(designated as A',) said frameworkhaving in practice imparted to it a shaking motion in order that the nails laid in. the raceways may readily travel along them. I have not deemed it of importance to herein show fully the framework, as the-same maylbe 'ofv any usual or suitable construction, my invention residing in the devices and parts to' be described which are located at the delivery endsof the plurality of racewaysandgwhich arrest and reversethe nails. 'lhenails descending the raceways .a. meet the endsfb of suitable raceway-sections or lifting devices B,

the top edge of said sections having suitable grooves, as a, which are continuations of the groove a of the plate A. The section B is mounted on a suitable rod 13, which is normally depressed by or through the action of a suitable spring B surrounding said rod and resting upon a pin 5 thereof, moving raceway-section B into the space 13", extended transversely across the machine at the end of the raceway plate A, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 3, and a suitable cam, as 13 (shown in Fig. 5,) acts upon said rod B to lift it and put the raceway-section B in its full-line or elevated position. In front of and parallel to the section B is a bar having a series of grooves a in line with the grooves a and a, and the part of the casting 3 having the space B also receives upon it an adjustable plate or nail-gage 0, having a series of grooves a also in line with the grooves a This plate constituting a raceway-terminal is made adjustable toward and from the portion of the casting 3 having the short grooves a so that the lower edge of said plate may be made to project more or less into or over the upper end of one of the side walls 0 constituting a groove or pocket 0 into which the nails are to be delivered with their points in the same direction.

I have provided the apparatus herein described with a device for arresting all the nails and reversing some of them, said device being herein represented as composed, essentially, of two plates D and D, the plate D acting as the reversing device. Said plates normally stand with their edges substantially flush, as represented in Fig. 4, both edges of the said plates standing within the space bounded by the side walls of the pocket. The plateD is held in its normal position, Fig. 4, by a spring, as D surrounding a rod D extended loosely through a guide or bracket D fixed to the upper plate D by screws d. The plate D has slots, as d, in which are entered the lower ends of pins (1 carried at the ends of levers (1 shown as elbow-levers, mounted upon studs (1 erected on fixed parts of the framework, said levers each having a stud, as d, the studs of both levers being represented as united by a connecting-rod C1 The stud d of the right-hand lever d (shown in Figs. 1 and 2) has attached to it one end of an elbow-lever 6, supported to turn on a pin e in the upper end of a lever e mounted upon the rock-shaft 6 the opposite end of which has fixed to it an arm 6 joined by a pin or stud e with a link 6 embracing an eccentric 6, fast on a rotating shaft 6 The lower end of the lever e enters a guide f, and above said guide said lever has a boss f, provided with a stud f (shown by full lines in Fig. 1 and dotted lines in Fig. 2,) said boss entering a slot in a let-off f shown as a plate having a series of holes f, one hole for each pocket, said let-off being free to slide between the under sides of said pockets and the delivery-holes f in the stationary bar f", the latter bar receiving in .the lower ends of said holes the tubes f which in practice may be connected with any suitable nail receiving and guiding tubes in order that the nails entering said tubes f may be conducted into the holes of the nail-plate or templet to receive them to be driven.

It will be understood from the foregoing that the eccentric e will vibrate the levers (2 6 and e and that said lever 6 will operate the elbow-levers d", which, engaging the plate D, will move the said plate toward and from the plate or nail-gage 0. During the first part of this movement away from the gage c the end of the bracket or guide D will be moved in a direction to lessen the compression of the spring D and the edge of the plate D will be carried back of the edge of the plate D, as represented in Fig. 3, and thereafter in the further backward movement of the plate D as soon as the ear of the guide D meets the nut D of the rod D then both plates will move together in unison, the edge of one, however, lying back of the edge of the other and coming finally into the position Fig. 3.

In operation let it be assumed that the raceways a are filled with a series of nails, heads and points indiscriminately, and that the leading ends of said nails, either heads or points, are resting against the side walls 1) of the section B. Now the cam 13 will be moved in a direction to enable the spring B to operate and lower the section B into the space B and during this operation the endmost nails of the series of nails in the series of racewaygrooves a will enter the series of grooves a, so that when the said cam again operates on the rod 13 to raise the section B each groove a of said section will bring up into it a nail, and said nails will be distributed therein indiscriminately with relation to their heads and points. Having arrived in the position Fig. 4, the nails will immediately, due to gravity, slide from said sections into the grooves a and a and leaving a the said nails will slide across the space between the edge of said gage c and the faces of the nail-arrester hereinbefore referred to. This gage 0 will be so adjusted with relation to the acting face of the nail-arrester that the space between the edge of said gage and said arrester will be substantially half the length of the nails to be acted upon and assorted, so that the nails which are head first will meet the edges of the one or the other of the plates D or D and will thereby be arrested. Their heads being heavier, the nails will immediately drop head first into the pocket 0 and will rest upon the slide f a solid part of said slide then closing the bottom part of the pocket. Such of the nails as leave the gage 0 point first will meet the edge of the uppermost plate D of the arrester, and the said nails will remain with their heads resting upon the gage c. In this condition of the parts the machine Will be stopped, the points of thepoint-first nails yet lying on the gage.

f or terminal being sustained by the arrester,

the nails which left the gage or terminal head first having droppedfrom the gage head firstand then resting with their heads on-the-slide f Now to fill the templet or other plate used with a series of nails the operator will start the lever 6 as.described,.and move the arrester. The first movement of the arrester will be to retract the plate D, thus letting the points of the nails pass over and upon the upper side of the edge of the plate D, so that said points will have a support against gravity, and then by the continued movement of the arrester, the two plates D and D moving to-:.

gether, the heads of the nails resting on the gage a will leave said gage, and their points being held up by the plate D the latter serves as a reverser, retarding the dropping of the points, while the heads, obeying gravity, descend. The nails so reversed immediately enter the grooves or pockets head first and meet the slide f so that the nails leaving the gage point first are deposited head first upon the slide f, as described of the nails. leaving the gage head first, and this done the slide f is moved to enable said nails to leave said grooves or pockets and enter the tubes. To provide for this temporary rest of the slide f while the lever e is moving, the slide is slotted where the lever e enters it. The slide having been opened and the nails having dropped through the holes f into the tubes, the movement of the'lever e is reversed to again close the pockets, and the arrester D resumes its original position, and during this last operation the section B has been depressed and elevated, again bringing up a newseries of nails, letting those taken up thereby head first descend along the grooves a and a and enter the pockets, leaving the points of the point-first nails resting against the arrester with the machine stopped.

I believe that the invention herein shown is the first nail-assorting mechanism embodying a device arranged to present an abutment to stop some of the nails and allow them to drop with means to withdraw said abutment and allow the rest of the nails to continue their forward movement. My invention is therefore not limited to the mechanism herein shown and described.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

I 1. In a nail-assorting mechanism, a race-. way to receive and gulde nails, a device to reverse the nails traveling point first on said way to receive and guide nails, means to preand allow the nailsttraveling-point first-to;

continue their forward movement. I

3. In a nail-assorting mechanism. a race-.

way to receive and guide nails, a device to transfer nails from said raceway, means toactuate said device to stop the nails coming head first on said raceway andallow them to I drop, and means to actuate said devicetoal-w low the nails coming pointfirst to continue their forward movement. I

4. A raceway-terminaL-a nail-arrester lo.-

cateda short distance therefrom and adapted I to recive against it the point and one side, of a nail next said point, and means to move said arrester away fromsaid terminal to enable the heads of the nails yet supported on the raceway to leave said raceway, the ar-u rester detaining the points of the nailsuntil .the heads have fallen sufficiently far to lead in the further movement of the nails.

5. In a nail asserting mechanism, a .plu-

rality of raceways, and a raceway-section provided with a pluralityof grooves to receive nails with their heads and points arranged indiscriminately, a series of nail-pockets,and a nail-arrester to receive against it and arrest only the'nails leaving said section point first, said arrester being adapted to be moved to a nail-arrester located; between said gageand pockets and composed of two parts, one part movableon or with relation to the other part,

means to move said arresterthatone part may be made to underlie the points of the point-first nails prior to the removal of the same from the said gage, substantiallyas described.

7. A nail-gage having a series of raceways" 1 and located near a series of :pockets, araceway for each pocket,combinedwith a nail-' arrester, composed of two parts one part movable on or with relation to the other part in order that one part may be made to underlie the points of the nails, saidarr'ester being-thereafter movable as an 'entirety away from said gage to'enahle the heads 'of the 'nails supportedon said gage to leave it and drop head foremost into saidpockets,substan- 'tially as described.

, 8. ha machine of the class described,a nail-arrester composed of plates, andmeans to moveone of said plates on or with relation I to the other to exposea portion of one of said plates to constitute a'stop to receive upon it.

the under edge of a point of a nail, combined with a nail-gage to. supportthe heads of a se- I ries of nails the points of which are sustained by the said arrester, substantially as de-' scribed.

9. A'nail-gage having a series of raceways and located -near a series of=pocket's,=a raceway-section for said pockets, combined with a nail-arrester composed of parts one movable on or with relation to the other part in order that one part may be made to underlie the points of said nails, said arrester being thereafter movable as an entirety away from said gage to enable the heads of the nails supported on said gage to leave it and drop head foremost into said pockets, a slide having holes and cooperating with said pockets, and means to move said slide to permit the discharge from said pockets of the nails contained therein, substantially as described.

10. Anail-assorting mechanism comprising raceways to receive and guide nails, suitable receptacles to receive nails leaving said raceways head first, and a device intermediate said raceways and said receptacles to first support temporarily the points of the nails leaving said raceways point first and to thereafter support the under sides of said nails near said points that they may be discharged from said raceways head first.

11. Inanail-assorting mechanism raceways to receive and guide nails, means to present an abutment to stop nails traveling head first on the raceways and allow them to drop head first, and means to withdraw said abutment and allow the nails traveling point first on the raceways to continue their forward movement until their heads have left the raceways, said nails then being free to drop head first.

12. In a nail-assorting mechanism raceways 

